98 CUPRESSUS, OR 



pointed, imbricated, scale-like leaves, arranged in four rows 

 resembling small green cord. Cones globular, or somewhat 

 oblong, from three-quarters to one inch long, and produced in 

 great abundance in dense clusters, each cone consisting gene- 

 rally of ten scales, of the shape of a shield, with from four to 

 six convex facets, rising into a kind of boss in the centre, 

 which is stiff and woody when ripe, and furnished in the centre 

 with a short, reflected, spiny point. Seeds small, nearly flat, 

 of a light brown colour, with a narrow wing round the border, 

 and from six to seven under each scale. Seed-leaves only two 

 in number. 



A fine pyramidal tree, with numerous short, slender, hori- 

 zontal, or sometimes deflected branches to near the ground, 

 and drooping branchlets. It is found in great abundance in 

 Northern India, at elevations of from 4000 to 8000 feet. 



It grows to a great size ; trees from ten to fifteen feet or 

 more in girth are common, and one at a place called " Urcho," 

 in the Kothee State, north of Simla, is said to be six or seven 

 feet in diameter. Major Madden says the Lime Stone Moun- 

 tains of " Nynee Tal " are covered from 4500 to G200 feet with 

 clumps of the most stately trees, the height of many of them 

 at least 150 feet, and all as straight as an arrow, with the 

 branches drooping slightly towards the ground, and so arranged 

 as to make the tree appear a perfect cone the largest speci- 

 men measured by him being sixteen feet and three-quarters in 

 girth at five feet from the ground, and the spread of its branches 

 twenty-four feet on each side ; but about twelve feet is the 

 average girth of the finer specimens at " Nynee Tal," where 

 the tree is commonly called " Raisulla," or King Pine. It seems 

 to be unknown as an indigenous tree in North- West Kamaon, 

 but in South-East Gurhwal it is in abundance at from 7000 to 

 8000 feet of elevation. It is the Weeping Cypress of travellers 

 in the Himalayas. 



This tree is called " Gulla," " Gulrai," and " Kullain," by the 

 mountaineers about Simla, all variations in their vernacular 

 for Divine Tree, and according to Eoyle, it is called " Shujrut- 



